Pennies From Heaven

Posted On January 12, 2025

I was out along one of my back trails on my afternoon walk yesterday. I love walking my network of trails. It’s so tranquil and quiet. Whether it’s the fluttering flush of a frantic ruffed grouse, or a crisp set of critter tracks breaking trail through fresh fallen snow, Mother Nature always has something special to share. When I am out there, I feel at peace with the world.

Yesterday was no different. I walked along quietly, immersing myself in the moment with all of my senses. We haven’t had much new snow lately in my Northwoods neck of the woods. My trails are partially covered in an inch or two of mid-January sunshine thawed powder, with greenish brown patches of mossy grass breaking up through the snow. I had been following a set of bobcat tracks crisscrossing my trail.

(Below: Fresh tracks in the snow & the bobcat that made them)

As I reached the corner junction of my outer boundary trail in a secluded spot I call “Outpost”, where a massive double trunked white pine’s canopy towers, something new caught my eye. I kneeled down to examine it more closely. What I saw was what I was almost certain was an eastern red cedar seedling peeking back up at me through the snow!

According to my handy Arbor Day Foundation tree ID guide titled “What Tree Is That?” (arborday.org, copyright 2018), eastern red cedar is not actually a true cedar, but a juniper (Juniperus virginiana) and the most widely distributed native conifer in the eastern United States. Apparently, their seedlings don’t resemble what most of us probably envision as “cedar”, having more conventional type needles instead. Regardless, I was ecstatic at my discovery, happy to have a new conifer tree seedling gracing my land.

I did an immediate visual scan of the area and much to my delight, I found more. In fact, by the time my search was complete I had spotted twenty-two more! Twenty-three healthy little red cedar seedlings staring up at me through the snow. I was thrilled at the find. Conifer seedlings on my land don’t often last long enough for my old eyes to spot them. Deer and rabbits usually nip them in the bud, browsing them back to nothingness before they can grow. When they do manage to survive long enough to find me, I call them my “Pennies from Heaven”.

I have one red pine seedling that I managed to find before the rabbits did. I hard wire caged it immediately. It’s now three years old.

I also have a slightly more mature trio of red cedar seedlings that have found me over the years. The one in the photo below is now five years old and outgrowing its cage. One of my tasks this summer will be investing in some new T-stakes and chicken wire to give it a roomier home.

So, based on experience and true to form, I hustled back to the house, rustled up 23 tomato cages from behind my shed, then centered each of my new pennies from heaven inside of one. The hardest part of that chore was pushing those tomato cage legs down through frozen ground, but bare hands on metal in snow and sub-freezing temps, I ignored my whining fingers and managed.

By the time I finished caging all twenty-three seedlings, it was nearly dark. With a plethora of bobcats and coyotes about, I decided that discretion was most likely the best part of valor and the task of fully protecting my heaven-sent pennies could probably wait ’til the morrow.

The next morning (this morning, actually, as I sit here & write), I went out early to scrounge up some chicken wire. I found half a roll of new wire in my shed. That was enough to hard wire cage most but not all of my new treasures. Once that roll was exhausted, I trapsed back to the house and managed to salvage enough wire from cages I’d removed over the summer from trees that had outgrown them to finish the job.

So, on a brisk Sunday morning in the middle of January, by the time most folks are just rolling out of bed, finishing their morning coffee, or heading off to church, I had finished hard wire caging twenty-three shiny new Pennies from Heaven.

Financial advisors frequently preach on the time value of money.

I’m a believer in the time value of trees.

Time will tell what my effort generates in terms of return on investment as I walk life’s trail each day with which I am blessed and watch my pennies from heaven grow.

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO